The Ministry of Education didn’t permit the traineeship in the United States of America to the sixty Belarusian school-children who won the context of FLEX exchange program, announced by the state newspaper Nastaunitskaia Hazieta in October 2004. The ministry officials refuse to comment on this event.

In March 2005 Aliaksandr Lukashenka signed the decree “About certain measures to counteract human beings trafficking”. On the basis of this document the Ministry of Education adopted a special instruction. The officials explained to the parents that their children couldn’t go to the US because one of the instruction paragraphs was violated and they hadn’t been informed about the contest and its conditions.

FLEX American exchange program for school-goers has acted in Belarus for 13 years already. For this time more than 600 Belarusian children have travelled to the US.